What is PARedu?
No, we did not become a university overnight. However, we are here to educate! PARedu will offer a combination of educational trainings, development programs and informative webinars, organized by PAR, that are available to PAR members and non-members. We believe that training and development for our industry presents prime learning opportunities to expand one's knowledge base in various subjects which in turn strengthens the capacity of your team.
Click here for a list of past trainings.
Interested in becoming a part of the PARedu lineup? Fill out the below PARedu Proposal Form.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Competitive Integrated Employment (CIE) Principles and Program Design
Monday // April 29
1:00 - 3:00 pm EST // Virtual
Speaker Bio
CIE is a team effort and is successful when each person is aware of their roles and responsibilities and meaningfully engages with other partners from a person centeredperspective. Innovative and sustainable employment planning includes the person, case manager, family, residential providers, employers, state partners, and others as determined by the person. This training is focused on the role residential providers play in championing CIE for the people they support and ensuring continued success. Residential providers play a critical role in supporting successful employment outcomes. On the flip side, those successful outcomes translate to similar triumphs at home and in the community. Bottom line, CIE ensures a win-win scenario.
Learning Objectives:
- Definition of CIE
- Understand the principles of “Employment First” models
- Identify the roles and responsibilities that contribute to successful CIE
- Understand guidelines for designing residential programs that support CIE and compliance with the State of PA Residential Performance Standards
- Coordination
- Relationships
- Engagement
- Innovation
- Data
- Tools and resources to support implementation of guidelines within residential agencies
Tangible resources webinar participants will retain: Guidelines for designing residential programs that fully support CIE
This training is designed for residential provider executive teams, directors and others interested.
Freeing Individuals to Live Their Most Independent Lives
Wednesday // May 1
9:30 am - 12:30 pm EST // Virtual
Speaker Bio
Do you feel like, sometimes, your staff create more dependence than independence?
We all know that the goal for the individuals we serve is to increase independence through skill acquisition, but in those day to day moments when decisions are made and supports provided, the needle sometimes doesn’t move any closer to independence, if it moves at all.
In this workshop agency leaders will learn how to teach staff to support individuals in ways that:
- Expand Individuals’ independence
- Empower individuals to develop decision making skills
- End unnecessary dependence on staff
- Make it clear when success is achieved (both for the individual and the staff)
- Support staff to create a full company culture of empowering individuals
This training is designed for trainers, frontline supervisors, managers, directors and executives.
Effective Communication Between Staff and Supervisors
Tuesday // May 14
9:00 - 11:00 am EST // Virtual
Speaker Bio
The key to present and future agency success will be how well communications are performed between supervisors/managers and staff. Let’s remember that Staff are a key to positive PR with individuals, stakeholders and the community. What they say reflects on YOUR agency and school image and reputation will directly reflect how well your supervisory staff are trained in handling interpersonal interactions.
In this training, participants will learn:
- How to identify key communication issues using focus groups!
- The four (4) steps in fairly and empathetically interacting with stressed/angry staff.
- The four (4) steps in objectively and fairly managing and directing staff.
- At least one (1) strategy to use in building a positive workplace culture.
This training is designed for ID/A Supervisors, Managers, Directors, and other leaders in the field.
HRCI and SHRM CEUs will be offered for this training.
This training will be recorded and shared with all registrants. The recording will be valid for 30 days!
Promoting Informed Choice Through "The Three E's"
Monday // May 29
11:00 am - 12:30 pm EST // Virtual
Speaker: Courtney Kelly Chapman, The Council on Quality and Leadership (CQL)
The Three E's - Education, Experience, and Exposure - is the foundation for informed choice. The knowledge we gain, situations we come across, and observations along the way, all help us as we encounter new circumstances, make decisions, and adjust to the world around us. The Three E'sare especially relevant to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) considering that their choices are regularly limited or even completely restricted. In this presentation, we describe the role that the Three E's can play in the lives of those with disabilities in promoting choice, advancing self-determination, and protecting independence. You’ll hear real-life stories of how different provider organizations are using the Three E’s to positively impact people’s lives. Finally, we’ll share data that demonstrates the direct impact that Education, Experience, and Exposure can have on quality of life outcomes.
Developing a Positive Culture for Staff and Individuals
Thursday // June 13
9:00 - 11:00 am EST // Virtual
Speaker Bio
A high quality, positive culture is critical for your Agency’s success. Now more than ever with the seemingly never ending pandemic, staff recruitment and retention issues and general societal negativity it becomes imperative to have a culture which is positive, supportive and responsive. A culture YOU and your Staff brag about to family, friends, stakeholders and others!
In this training, participants will learn how to:
- Teach staff the “true value” of their efforts.
- Design positive messaging to Staff.
- Create a daily positive interaction diet.
- Construct an “OREO” communication message to ensure positive messaging is used when Individuals are the focus.
- Take care of self during the “stressful” times.
- Use the three secrets of positive engagement with Individuals and other stakeholders.
- Avoid the five “no-no’s”!
This training is designed for all leaders in the ID/A field.
HRCI and SHRM CEUs will be offered for this training.
This training will be recorded and shared with all registrants. The recording will be valid for 30 days!
Frontline Supervisor Training
Monday & Tuesday // June 17 & June 18
9:30 am - 12:30 pm EST // Virtual
Speaker Bio
You’ve just received a big promotion, a new set of keys, access to approve timesheets, and an eager team to supervise, educate, support, and lead. Problem is, nobody’s shown you how. As a frontline supervisor you are a pivotal link in the service delivery chain and the key to your organization’s effectiveness. (No pressure.) You are now completely responsible for the performance of your team, regulatory compliance, translating instructions from upper management, and staff development, all while performing a multitude of administrative tasks and helping to ensure the health and welfare of those we serve. Chances are, you could use a few new tools in your management toolbox. In these two half-days of hands-on training with Sara Sherman, supervisors will:
- Learn the 10 Fundamentals of Supervision
- Discover the secret to finding and addressing the root cause of performance issues
- Identify their own supervisory strengths and vulnerabilities
- Understand two of the most challenging employee personality types, and learn how to stop them in their tracks
- Leave with a written Supervisory Success Outline
This training is a 6 hour training split over two days. Attendees should plan on attending both days of this two-day, two-part training.
This training is designed for current and future frontline supervisors.
HRCI and SHRM CEUs will be offered for this training.
Equitable Policy Development
Wednesday // June 26
9:00 am - 11:30 am EST // Virtual
Speaker Bio
For years policies, procedures, and programs have been developed that often, unintentionally have inequitable outcomes “baked into the sauce” particularly for black and brown communities. Many of us are in positions of influence and we can start making “new sauce” that focuses on how policies, procedures, and programs affect all our communities and how we can write them in a way that gives people what they need to be successful. In the I/DD community we have long supported the principles of person centeredness. Those principles are parallel to the principles of equity. In this training we will learn how to utilize an equity lens when developing policies and procedures that are routed in person centered planning principles.
Learning Objectives:
- Define Equity
- Demonstrate parallels between equity and person centeredness
- Identify contributing factors to inequitable policies, procedures, and programs
- Identify 3 stages of policy development and equity related considerations at each stage
- Proposal
- Solutions
- Evaluation
- Create a pathway to implementation
- Data
- Outreach
- Collaboration
- Practice makes perfect
- Identify opportunities to use lens to support people who have I/DD and mental health support needs
- Understand how to use equitable policy development lens that supports the state of PA Residential Performance Standards
- Tools and resources to support implementation of lens within agency
Tangible resources training participants will retain: Equitable policy development lense
HRCI and SHRM CEUs will be offered for this training.
Healthy Meal Planning
Thursday // July 11
9:30 am - 12:30 pm EST // Virtual
Speaker Bio
We recognize nutrition as the foundation of good health and as the source of sufficient energy to power through our days, yet we often don't give sufficient time or attention to planning and preparing healthy meals. The typical American diet is recognized as too high in sugar, sodium, and carbs, and too lacking in fruits, vegetables, and lean protein.
We ask our Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) to assist individuals to prepare healthy meals, but we don't often give DSPs the instructions they need in order to accomplish that task. The result is that DSPs can only implement their own personal meal practices, and if those practices are not in line with federal healthy eating standards, individuals do not have access to the benefits of a healthy diet.
The result is that individuals are often eating the same things repeatedly, meals are not balanced, individuals do not have access to the best possible health, and they don't experience the full enjoyment and benefit of healthy foods.
In this hands-on, train-the-trainer style workshop participants will learn:
- The basics of healthy meal planning - how to create a diverse menu, shop, and prepare meals based on an individual's preferences and a budget
- How give the individuals you serve the maximum level of ownership possible over their own meal planning and preparation, and subsequently their health
- How to accommodate busy schedules into the meal planning process
- How to develop expectations for staff around meal planning and incorporate those expectations into your agency's internal QA process
- And more...
This training is designed for trainers, frontline supervisors, managers and other stakeholders.
The "Right" To An Effective Human Rights Committee
Wednesday // July 17
12:00 - 1:30 pm EST // Virtual
Speaker: Angela Rapp Kennedy, The Council on Quality and Leadership (CQL)
Everyone has rights! And when it comes to the human services field, Human Rights Committee (HRC) play an integral role. These committees promote and protect the human, civil, and legal rights of people with disabilities who are receiving services. So what are the roles and responsibilities of an HRC? Who should all be the members of it? How can you avoid common pitfalls in both establishing and maintaining the committee? In this presentation, you’ll receive answers to all these questions and many more! We share strategies you can use for creating your committee, ensuring it’s asking the right questions, and avoiding ‘danger signs’ that regularly occur in the disability services system. We’ll also share some eye-opening data about the relationship between fair treatment and overall quality of life. You’ll leave this presentation with specific action steps you can put in place “right” away!
Equity in Hiring
Wednesday // July 24
9:00 am - 11:30 am EST // Virtual
Speaker Bio
It is no secret that there is a Direct Support Professional crisis across the country. Agencies and people self-directing their services are struggling to find long-term stable staffing support to help people achieve their needs and goals. Raises alone are not solving the direct care workforce shortage. There have been promising outcomes in creating career paths for Direct Support Professionals either through NADSP or state specific initiatives. Another piece of this solution is looking at the demographics of the direct support workforce and ensuring that we are, in true person-centered fashion, ensuring they have what they need to be successful. Most direct support professionals are women from black or brown communities, making less than $20.00 per hour which in most states is not enough to afford stable housing. This training focuses on how agencies can create and implement equity focused recruitment, hiring and onboarding processes that are reflective of the DSP workforce and their needs to be successful in an employment setting.
Learning Objectives:
- Define Equity
- Demonstrate parallels between equity, person centeredness, and hiring
- Understand state of DSP workforce
- Understand DSP workforce demographics
- Identify stages of the hiring process and how to imbed equitable principles at each stage
- Recruitment
- Interviewing
- Hiring
- Onboarding
- Understand how to use an equity in hiring framework within agency that supports the state of PA Residential Performance Standards
- Tools and resources to support implementation of framework within agency
Tangible resources training participants will retain: Equity in hiring framework, onboarding template, interview guidelines/questions
HRCI and SHRM CEUs will be offered for this training.
Leveraging Social Capital To Improve Quality of Life
Wednesday // August 14
11:o0 am - 12:30 pm EST // Virtual
Speaker: Rebecca Kasey, The Council on Quality and Leadership (CQL)
Social Capital involves the connections people create and the resulting trust, reliance, and reciprocity that comes out of those relationships. Especially in the human services system, there are distinct benefits for supporting people with disabilities to build social capital in their life. Through Personal Outcome Measures® data, we find that only 38.8% of people with disabilities had outcomes related to Social Capital present in their lives, including areas like community, relationships, friendships, social roles, etc. This session will help you in understanding, identifying, and improving Social Capital. Attendees will leave with specific strategies to support people in establishing connections, nurturing relationships, and living better lives. We’ll also share examples of people moving beyond being in the community, to actually being a part of the community.
Creating an Internal Compliance System
Thursday & Friday // August 22 & 23
9:30 am - 12:30 pm EST // Virtual
Speaker Bio
You know the rules, and your team is trained on the expectations; but your organization still struggles with compliance. There are too many panic moments, too much chaos, and internal and external audits reveal errors. How can this be?
The problem is that you don’t have an effective internal quality assurance system.
With an effective internal QA system, you will:
- Catch errors quickly…before they become big problems.
- Quickly return to your QA system after an emergency or crisis. (Never get permanently derailed again.)
- Use a straightforward system of checks and balances to maintain compliance and catch errors, instead of just relying on 1 or 2 key personnel.
- Practically eliminate the new staff learning curve that inherently creates risk for your agency.
- Meet the compliance requirement of having an internal compliance system.
In this training participants will map out a high-level compliance blueprint that can easily be adapted for each agency’s unique needs.
This training is designed for frontline supervisors, managers, directors, compliance officers and executives.
HRCI and SHRM CEUs will be offered for this training.
Frontline Supervisor Training
Wednesday & Thursday // September 11 & 12
9:30 am - 12:30 pm EST // Virtual
Speaker Bio
You’ve just received a big promotion, a new set of keys, access to approve timesheets, and an eager team to supervise, educate, support, and lead. Problem is, nobody’s shown you how. As a frontline supervisor you are a pivotal link in the service delivery chain and the key to your organization’s effectiveness. (No pressure.) You are now completely responsible for the performance of your team, regulatory compliance, translating instructions from upper management, and staff development, all while performing a multitude of administrative tasks and helping to ensure the health and welfare of those we serve. Chances are, you could use a few new tools in your management toolbox. In these two half-days of hands-on training with Sara Sherman, supervisors will:
- Learn the 10 Fundamentals of Supervision
- Discover the secret to finding and addressing the root cause of performance issues
- Identify their own supervisory strengths and vulnerabilities
- Understand two of the most challenging employee personality types, and learn how to stop them in their tracks
- Leave with a written Supervisory Success Outline
This training is a 6 hour training split over two days. Attendees should plan on attending both days of this two-day, two-part training.
This training is designed for current and future frontline supervisors.
HRCI and SHRM CEUs will be offered for this training.
How to Create a Years Worth of Meaningful Activities on Just a Few Interests
Wednesday // October 9
9:30 am - 12:30 pm EST // Virtual
Speaker Bio
Is everybody a little bored?
Does it seem like the individuals you serve end up doing the same activities week in and week out?
Is it a struggle to come up with new ideas to keep life fresh and interesting for the individuals you serve and keep your DSPs busy and creative?
It’s not easy to come up with new ideas day in and day out, but with a little know-how it is possible to leverage an individual’s likes and hobbies to create a robust list of things to do.
In this hands-on session supervisors and managers will learn how to:
- Turn just a few interests of the individuals you support into a full calendar year of meaningful activities.
- Use an individual’s interests to naturally connect to the community
- Empower DSPs to take the reigns in planning, organizing, and implementing these activities.
- End “same old, same old” forever.
This training is designed for trainers, frontline supervisors, managers, directors, executives and other stakeholders.
On-Going Training Techniques
Wednesday // November 6
9:30 am - 12:30 pm EST // Virtual
Speaker Bio
One of the biggest challenges providers face as they work to maintain regulatory compliance is to ensure staff receive continual and ongoing training. The challenge is further compounded because employees are spread across service settings, counties, have differing schedules, and often work alone. Lack of ongoing training can be key reason for citations and regulatory non-compliance. Creativity and innovation are required in order keep staff on their toes and stay in compliance with requirements. In this online interactive session with Sara Sherman, supervisors and leaders in your organization will learn:
- The tools and techniques to implement ongoing staff training, even across multiple and diverse service locations.
- The biological barriers that make learning new information a challenge, and how to surpass those challenges.
- How to create a work culture that expects and strives for compliance.
- Methods to measure and track progress and identify shortcomings for quick remediation.
This training is designed for trainers, frontline supervisors, managers, directors, executives and other stakeholders.
HRCI and SHRM CEUs will be offered for this training.
Frontline Supervisor Training
Tuesday & Wednesday // December 3 & 4
9:30 am - 12:30 pm EST // Virtual
Speaker Bio
You’ve just received a big promotion, a new set of keys, access to approve timesheets, and an eager team to supervise, educate, support, and lead. Problem is, nobody’s shown you how. As a frontline supervisor you are a pivotal link in the service delivery chain and the key to your organization’s effectiveness. (No pressure.) You are now completely responsible for the performance of your team, regulatory compliance, translating instructions from upper management, and staff development, all while performing a multitude of administrative tasks and helping to ensure the health and welfare of those we serve. Chances are, you could use a few new tools in your management toolbox. In these two half-days of hands-on training with Sara Sherman, supervisors will:
- Learn the 10 Fundamentals of Supervision
- Discover the secret to finding and addressing the root cause of performance issues
- Identify their own supervisory strengths and vulnerabilities
- Understand two of the most challenging employee personality types, and learn how to stop them in their tracks
- Leave with a written Supervisory Success Outline
This training is a 6 hour training split over two days. Attendees should plan on attending both days of this two-day, two-part training.
This training is designed for current and future frontline supervisors.
HRCI and SHRM CEUs will be offered for this training.
PARedu Trainings are an initiative of Pennsylvania Advocacy and Resources for Autism and Intellectual Disability, a 501(c)3 organization.
|
